Organizing Your Coin Collection
Coin collecting can be very engaging and overwhelming at times that you get carried away. Sometimes one gets too carried away and ends up spending a fortune unnecessarily. That’s not a problem if you are a very wealthy man and you have lots of money to spare. But if you are just an average coin collector and just collecting for the sheer joy of collecting, then you should limit yourself to what you really want and can afford. First and foremost, decide on the kind of coin you really want to collect. Silver or Gold? Silver is shiny and looks heavenly. Maybe you like that immaculate shine. Or the earthly luster of gold. You can also base your collection on modern or ancient coins. Does ancient history appeal to you? Or you are more of a contemporary type of person? If you choose to collect ancient coins, you can narrow the selection down to civilization, culture, or era. You can also do a per country collection. All denominations from different countries. You can narrow your collection to one continent only. Or maybe all of them. Then you can arrange and display them according to the continent.
Narrowing down your interests to a more specific collection will greatly help in organizing your coins and more importantly, your budget. Your coin display would be more organized. You can arrange it per category. A specified type of collection can also help you avoid buying unnecessary or out-of-place coins that do not fit in your collection.
Second, decide on your budget. How much are you willing to spend on your collection? Are you willing to splurge, or can you really afford to splurge? Hobbies can eat away your budget on other things if you don’t monitor your expenses. It would help if you set a specific amount that is within your budget without hurting other necessities. Stick to that amount. You can set aside that particular amount every month and then go coin-shopping when you have plenty of funds already. It’s more fun that way—having lots of money at hand to spend. It gives you a lot of choices.
Third, try to familiarize yourself with the type of coin you want to collect. Do your homework and research on those coins. It is more fun if you know a lot of facts about your coin collection. I believe that the joy of coin collecting, or any other collection for that matter, is in showing people and telling them the stories behind your collection. There is some sense of pride. Knowing your collection will also help you avoid buying fraudulent coins. This can save you a lot of money.
